How Can Lightning Damage a Building?

Regularly missed in lightning strike claims are damages to the electrical system in your home, and this can be costly. It's usually the result of either damage to specific wiring, voltage that exceeds the limits of your current wiring, or repairs requiring replacement pursuant to a change in building codes. Either way, it should be covered, but likely not without a fight. The repairs for this are pretty comprehensive and often require significant replacement throughout the home, which in turn requires removal of drywall at various locations. Again, these damages may present themselves down the road, at which point you are likely in for a lot of questions from your insurance company about causation and any prior issues in the home.

Air terminals: also referred to as lightning rods, these inconspicuous copper or aluminum rods are vertically mounted on the roof at regular intervals. The air terminals serve as strike receptors, designed to intercept the lightning strike. Main conductors: constructed of aluminum or copper, these braided cables connect the air terminals to the other system components and the grounds. Grounds: a minimum of two ground rods, driven at least 10 feet deep in the earth are required for all structures. The ground terminations direct the dangerous current into the ground, to eliminate the chance of injury or damage to the structure.

A lightning strike can cause significant damage to a home due to its immense energy and heat. The severity of the damage can vary depending on various factors such as the strength of the strike, the conductive paths in the house, and the building’s structural materials. Here are some potential damages that a lightning strike can cause to a home: fire: the most common and dangerous consequence of a lightning strike is fire. When lightning hits a building, it can ignite flammable materials like wood, insulation, or gas lines, leading to a destructive blaze that can spread rapidly and cause extensive damage.

Since lightning is an act of god, not all lightning related incidents can be prevented. However, there are measures that can be implemented to mitigate lightning damage. Bolt lightning protection has developed an integrated approach to lightning protection. Our three-pronged approach is designed to protect your property from both direct and indirect lightning strikes, which includes: bonding and grounding transient voltage surge suppression structural lightning protection going forward, changing weather patterns will further exacerbate the risk of lightning damage. As such, commercial and industrial property owners can expect to face even greater risks at facilities in which downtime is a costly luxury. Some facilities are more at risk than others due to their location, the construction of the building, and whether there are any installed lightning protection solutions.

Lightning Is a Serious Threat to Property

According to the national fire protection association, from 2007 to 2011 local us fire departments responded to an average of 22,600 fires per year that were started by lightning. These lightning-related fires caused an average of nine civilian deaths and $451 million in direct property damage per year. Also, according to the insurance information institute: more than $900 million in lightning claims were paid out in 2018 to nearly 78,000 policyholders across the us what can you do to protect yourself and your home when lightning threatens? check out these preparation tips for when a storm is coming.

Call a Lawyer Today

If your insurance company attempts to deny your lightning claim or offers a settlement that is less than the cost of covering your damages, the tampa lightning damage lawyers at germain law group can help you. We’ll take on insurance companies and fight to maximize your settlement. Call us today at (813) 835-8888 to set up a consultation to discuss your lightning damage claim. Germain law group represents the victims of lightning strikes in central florida through hillsborough, pinellas, polk, citrus, hernando counties, and surrounding areas. Lightning damage to florida homes lightning can cause a wide range of problems and damage.

Do I Need a Lawyer If the Car Accident Was Minor?

Like liability coverage, medical payments coverage pays if you cause physical injury to someone outside your household. However, you don’t need to be found at fault for medical payments coverage to pay out. Which events are covered: you could tap your medical payments coverage if someone suffers a minor injury on your property or you cause harm to someone outside your home. Similar restrictions apply to liability and medical payments, with no coverage for intentional acts or car accidents, among other exclusions. How it works: your dog bites the hand of a visiting friend. There’s no serious harm, but your medical payments insurance covers the cost of their trip to urgent care for stitches.

3 Signs Your House Was Struck by Lightning

A house or other substantial building offers the best protection from lightning. In assessing the safety provided by a particular structure, it is more important to consider what happens if the structure gets struck by lightning, rather than whether the structure will be hit by lightning. For a shelter to provide protection from lightning, it must contain a mechanism for conducting the electrical current from the point of contact to the ground. These mechanisms may be on the outside of the structure, may be contained within the walls of the structure, or may be a combination of the two.

Our editors and experts handpick every product we feature. We may earn a commission from your purchases. In the u. S. , the odds that you’ll be struck by lightning in your lifetime, if you live to be 80, are fairly low — 1 in 15,300. In fact, in 2020, there were only 17 verified, direct lightning strikes in the u. S. But the odds that lightning strikes your house are much higher, about one in every 200 houses in the u. S. Per year. Last year, there were more than 70,000 lightning damage claims from homeowners in the u.

If you've heard that the antenna on your roof can't be struck by lightning or that it will protect your house from being struck, both are big old myths. Roof antennas are not grounded, which not only make them an easy target for lightning strikes, but the current from the lightning can move the antenna and provide an entryway for the lightning bolt to get deeper into your house. Okay, but what are the odds that your house will be struck by lightning? they're actually pretty high. Every year, one in 200 homes are struck by lightning. Having your home struck by lightning is not cheap.

Remember in back to the future when lightning struck the clock tower?  the surge of power provided enough energy to get marty mcfly and doc brown back to where they belonged in 1985. Power surges from lightning may not actually be able to allow us to time travel, but they sure can be a pretty powerful source of electricity with big impacts. What will happen if my home is struck by lightning? during a lightning storm, the lightning is doing whatever it takes to get to the ground. If your house is in the way, it will run through whatever it can in the house to make its way to the ground including through wiring, gutters, and plumbing.